Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) followed up on Chairman Walden’s question about when the committee will receive a response from DEA regarding the outstanding questions. Mr. Neil Doherty, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Diversion Control, DEA, responded saying, “We will expedite that information after the hearing.” Rep. DeGette continued to press Mr. Doherty on the timeframe of DEA’s upcoming response, asking if it would come in “One week? One month? One year?” Mr. Doherty responded saying he was unable to put a timeframe on when the committee would receive a response.

Witnesses included officials from the FDA, SAMHSA, DEA, CDC, and NIH’s NIDA

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, FDA Commissioner, said he looked forward to continuing to work with the committee to identify other ways the agency can contribute to the shared effort to combat the epidemic. Dr. Gottlieb specifically highlighted the agency’s plans to step up oversight of synthetic drugs moving through mail facilities.

In addressing recent news reports making the case that a bill that became law last Congress has made it more difficult for DEA to do its job, Mr. Doherty responded to Rep. Blackburn’s question, saying, “One of our administrative tools, an Immediate Suspension Order, recently came under report in the media. We would be happy to work with Congress and we look forward to working with Congress, with Department of Justice oversight to ensure that from an enforcement – criminal enforcement perspective, a civil sanction perspective, and an administrative perspective, which are all tools that we use to prevent the diversion of licit pharmaceuticals. We would be more than happy to work, as I said, with Congress, with Department of Justice oversight to ensure that we have the most updated and applicable tools moving forward to attack the opioid crisis.”